Chapter 14

Considering the sheer amount of defias members present in the region, the nearest known camp was only about an hour's walk away. With their newest member boosting their already decent setup, they could go against superior numbers of thugs.

The bandit camp was hidden among a patch of trees growing near a road. The spot was almost custom-made to easily rob unwitting travelers.

"Can you scout their camp with an eagle eye?" Corben asked Eldum.

"I'll try, but the spot is well hidden.". Eldum replied, sitting down on the grass.

He closed his eyes and sat unmoving for a few minutes.

"Hey, can I go scout? I can leave some surprises for them." Jithu pulled a few sticks of explosives from her bag.

"We are not blowing them up. If you leave a crater behind, there won't be any bandanas left as proof!" Corben shut down the gnome.

"Then give me something to leave for them, I know you have some good stuff." She didn't back down.

"Maybe just let her use the explosives. With any luck, she will blow herself up in the process." Yiliana said, exhaling a large cloud of smoke through the free side of her mouth. At this point, she had bummed six cigars from Corben and had not shown any signs of stopping.

"Unfortunately, that's unlikely." Corben said while rummaging through his bag.

"Are you hearing this? They are bullying me again." Jithu turned to Lonaraa for support but got a cold shoulder with even the compassionate draenei catching up to Jithu just playing up being offended.

"It's well deserved. Here, you can test this." Corben handed the annoyed gnome a flask with purplish liquid inside.

"What is this?" Jithu asked, all but forgetting about all the previous insults.

"If you break it, it will turn into sleeping gas… and laxative." Corben intentionally coughed at the last part.

"Why did you mix those two things together?" Yiliana asked inching away from Jithu just in case.

"You did use it in school on someone." Lonaraa more stated than asked.

"Maybe…" Corben looked away from the group and pretend to look for something else in his bag.

"Why would you do something like that to anyone?" Lonaraa didn't back down.

"Hey, they were arrogant assholes and it was well deserved. It's not like anyone died." Corben looked up, adding with a smirk, "Their dorm room did stank for weeks."

"If I pass out because of it, I'm stabbing you in the face afterwards." Jithu pointed a finger at him and then went into stealth, disappearing from everyone's sight. "Oh, and when you are close enough, raise your hand so I know when to start." She added as her voice grew quieter.

"Eldum, you got anything?" Corben asked as the mental image of Jithu messing up and shattering the flask by accident didn't want to leave.

"About ten of them. Two had bows, two looked like casters." Eldum reported, opening his eyes.

"Then let's hope Jithu doesn't mess up too badly. In either case, I'll try to neutralize the casters. Eldum, you take the two with bows. Lonaraa and Osbeorn will have to be on the defensive while we are busy. Yiliana, prioritize them and only heal me Eldum, and Jithu if we are seriously wounded." Corben gave orders and motioned to follow him.

The group crept closer to the camp through the tall grass. Once the first tents were visible, he whispered. "When I raise my hand, taunt that one on the right. He looks like the leader."

"Do I have to?" Lonaraa whispered back with a half whine.

"I told you before, no one cares what you say."

"But…"

"I'm sure Yiliana doesn't care about a few swearwords right?"

"Didn't take you for that type of warrior but no, I don't mind." Yiliana gave Lonaraa a reassuring smile.

"Then I'm ready." Lonaraa nodded.

Corben stood up and raised his hand with Lonaraa following suit as she pointed at the assumed bandit leader and shouted at the top of her lungs. "Hey, you with that shit-stained rag on your face, do all of you Defias scum wipe their asses with those filthy bandanas."

The bandit immediately charged at her, but before the rest could follow a loud cracking sound distracted them.

Before anyone knew what hit them, four of the bandits started to cough and quickly passed out.

Luckily, the two bow wielders were among them, and while Corben silenced one of the mages, Eldum shut the other one in the face, leaving only three attackers as two tried to flee and got slashed in the hamstrings by Jithu, who did a quick work of them the moment both hit the ground.

Even with that, the remaining three turned out to be the toughest. The bandit leader, despite being much shorter than Lonaraa, managed to keep her in the defensive, inflicting light wounds with his pointy daggers that pierced her chain armor with relative ease.

To her credit, Yiliana was on top of her role and healed the wounds as quickly as Lonaraa and Osbeorn got them. The remaining two bandits were held off by the bear, but he too struggled.

While the caster afflicted by silence spell could only helplessly watch, Eldum shot him, seeing that Corben was casting a spell to disrupt the two attackers trying to kill Osbeorn.

Jithu, meanwhile, charged towards Lonaraa with speed her short legs should not be able to reach.

As skillful as the bandit leader was, he could not fend off two combatants, and the moment Jithu's knife pierced his side, he was done for. Lonaraa's massive sword came crashing down to his head, splitting it in two.

"Dibs on the knives!" Jithu shouted and started to inspect corpses for useful items.

Most of the armor and weapons were of good enough quality to sell in the second-hand market.

"We still need to finish off the four sleeping ones." Corben reminded the gnome.

"The stuff is still in the air. I ain't going near them. You and Eldum can kill them from a distance." Jithu replied while picking the pockets of the bandit leader.

"Shouldn't we capture them alive and bring them to marshal. We can't just kill them if we don't have to." Lonaraa protested against what in her opinion, was needless killing.

"They chose their fate when joining that accursed group of lowlifes. Do not weep for the likes of them." Yiliana said, pushing Jithu aside and looking through the bandit's belongings herself.

"Hey! Find your own corpse!" Jithu growled at the elf.

"Calm down, we are splitting everything evenly." Corben said.

"You trust that the thieving pest won't take more while we are not looking?" Yiliana asked.

"'Crotch bandit' claimed that she doesn't steal from her tea… ughr…" Jithu's heavy boot masterfully connected with Corben's shin.

"You are pushing it, pal! You continue calling me that and see what happens." She shouted.

"But it is an accurate description of you, lass," Eldum said with a chuckle.

"You too?! At least Lonaraa is nice to me." She theatrically quivered her lip.

"She is nice to everyone… why the hell does it hurt so bad. Yiliana, help me here."

"Don't be a baby and walk it off." The elf dismissed his plea while inspecting papers the bandit leader had hidden in a hidden pocket. "What is this? Looks like a map of sorts."

"Let me see." Jithu ran up to her and snatched the paper out of Yiliana's hand with a jump.

"Yup, this must be a treasure map. Oh, there is half-faded writing." Jithu pushed her nose into the nap and tried to read the faded text with one eye. "Ca…captain…Sander's… if you are reading this, I'm dead… treasure… western coast… uhg, it's just a location of his sunken ship where in his footlocker we can find the next clue."

"The western coast is rather far away. We will have to pay for a ride to get there and we might be late already as someone could have found the treasure." Corban said with a half groan, sitting on the grass and massaging his leg while the supposed team's healer didn't do anything about.

As his team argued if it was even worth going on the treasure hunt, he decided to use a healing potion, making sure Yiliana saw him drinking it.

In the end, it was decided to pursue the treasure.

After all, adventuring was their job description, and a wild treasure hunt sure sounded like an exciting endeavor.

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After turning in the bandanas for bounty and selling off all the bandit gear, which local shopkeepers bought for way under the price, the team stacked up on dry food and bought a tent large enough for all six of them.

Osbeorn, as usual, was the designated pack mule, which he didn't mind too much as long as Eldum fed him.

While everyone was busy preparing, Yiliana managed to get a large parasol which she held over her head while sitting on top of the rolled-up tent.

Somehow, she knew what sort of sweets Osborn liked and bribed the bear to carry her around.

"This is bullshit!" Jithu ranted. "Why is she with her long legs riding the bear? It should be me up there."

"Because the hairy beast has no self-respect." Eldum glared at his pet, who was chewing on his treat with a smug expression.

"Say, boss, why aren't you saying anything? You hate walking as much as I do." Jithu turned to Corben who walked beside Lonaraa.

"He is getting in form for the waif. Lass has gotten him good." Eldum said with a chuckle.

"Lucky her." Jithu mumbled and continued ranting about walking.

The trip to the coastal spot marked on the map took over a day. But with a tent to sleep in and a basic camouflage spell, they didn't have to worry about being ambushed during the night.

Of course, there always was an option to stay in farms during the night but that usually came with the price of doing a task for the owner.

Predictably, the coastline crawled with murlocs.

In hopes of being recognized by the amphibious creatures, Corben led the group to a hill overlooking the half-sunken ship which put them in a plain view from the shore.

One among them looked up at Corben curiously. In response, he pointed at the sunken ship waiting for the creature's response.

A murloc shouted something in his gargled language at rest of his kind, and they quickly moved away from the wreck.

Yiliana raised an eyebrow at the scene but didn't say anything.

Retrieving the footlocker's contents proved to be just as easy. With a shield guarding against getting wet and a few attempts to navigate the underwater parts of the ship, Corben's group got what they were looking for and found the next clue.

Their next target was halfway back to sentinel hill by a lone chimney at the side of the road.

"If this guy wasn't already dead I would want to find him and drown the bastard," Corben swore at the man that was seemingly sending them on a wild goose chase beyond the grave.

"Where is a necromancer when you need one? This freakin pirate deserves an ass kick." Jithu agreed.

With the hunt for treasure continuing, they reached the next spot in the early morning of the next day.

"Seriously!?" Corben tossed the next clue on the ground and stomped on it.

"This Captain Sander seems to have possessed a strange sense of humor." Yiliana dryly remarked with a long yawn.

The next clue led them to the northern parts of Westfall.

On the way there, the sweets that could be used to bribe Osbeorn ran out and Yiliana had to walk like everyone else, joining the already miserable Jithu and Corben, who was grumbling under his breath.

"Come on, a little walk won't kill you." Lonaraa tried to cheer him up.

"We are walking for the third freaking day." Corben retorted but didn't say much else as Lonaraa grabbed him by the upper arm with a smile and said.

"We can take a day off afterward. I'm sure the treasure will be enough to cover our expenses for a while."

"I hope so," Corben replied with a weak smile.

Meanwhile, Jithu tried to convince Osbeorn to carry her. "Be a pal and carry me for a while, I'll buy you all the sweats you want when we get back to the town."

The bear, not buying her promises, just shook his head and let out a grumble.

"He accepts only forward payment." Eldum translated for the bear.

Jithu gave the bear a soul-crushing stare and then turned her attention to Eldum. She moved close to the dwarf and pulled at his pants while looking up with big eyes.

"Lass, you want me to carry you? Have you no shame?" Eldum asked.

She shook her head and then said quietly lifting her arms like a little kid. "Please."

"Fine, fine." Eldum just let out a sigh and picked her up, letting the shameless gnome sit on his wide shoulders.

"You are my bestest friend ever." Jithu patted his head with a big smile.

"Remind me why you keep that pest in your group?" Yiliana asked.

"No idea." Corben replied.

"Don't you start again! I carry my weight during combat." Jithu shouted at them.

"Sure, you carry your weight. Right, Eldum?" Corben snickered.

Eldum shared a laugh with him as Jithu simply ignored both.

Another day and a half later, they finally reached their next destination which finally showed the location of the buried treasure; a small island to the west.

Now seeing the finish line they reached the shore in about an hour and made a makeshift raft from all the ship debris.

The island was barely visible from the shore, so no sea navigation was needed.

The moment their raft reached the island, Jithu jumped out of it and charged toward a small shack between the trees.

As others caught up to her, she had half dug out a chest with her bare hands.

Without hesitation, Corben and Eldum joined her, and about two minutes later, they pulled out the chest with Jithu quickly unlocking it with her thieves' tools.

With palpable anticipation, they opened the chest and looked inside.

Jithu's eye twitched as she pulled out a single silver bar, a worn shirt, an empty leather bag, and a pair of warm wool socks.

"We walked around for almost a week for this…" Lonaraa said in a flat tone. Even the always cheerful draenei woman was disappointed.

"You know, maybe we can find a necromancer somewhere in the Duskwood to reanimate this prick," Corben said, staring at the single silver bar that in the best of days would only fetch them about twenty silver coins.

"You do not need a necromancer." Yiliana said through her teeth as she kneeled and a light surrounded her.

"What are you doing?" Corben asked her.

"I'm demanding that bastard of a deadman's spirit show up and explain himself." She replied.

A bluish light appeared in a vaguely humanoid form in front of her and soon enough gained the features of a middle-aged man.

"Care to explain where the freaking treasure is?" Corben asked, pointing at the junk in the chest.

"My lucky shirt, and the socks. All my treasure is there, matey." The spirit responded by picking up the shirt and looking at it with a warm smile.

Jithu snarled and threw a small rock at the transparent figure. To everyone's surprise, the rock hit the man in the shoulder and he groaned in pain.

"Spirits can be hurt by physical attacks." An evil smile appeared on Corben's face. He tore a plank off the shack and hit the surprised spirit on the back with it.

As the ghost of Captain Sander wailed on the ground, more of his teammates grabbed planks and joined the brutal beating on the ghost that had led them to a fruitless treasure hunt.

Even Lonaraa considered joining them seeing the righteous wrath of her friends.

When they were done, the bluish translucent figure was beaten into a mush and slowly faded away.

"This prick! Hey Yil, can you get him back here." Corben asked, panting.

"He won't come for the second time knowing what awaits him. Let's just get back to Sentinel Hill. I need a bath and a strong drink."

"I think we all need a bath and booze," Corben replied.

Proofreading by Sad_Smiles and Visur Nyxan.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.